After ten years of steady growth, the birth rate per one thousand inhabitants in Spain fell from 11.37% to 10.73% in 2009.
The number of births to foreign mothers fell by 6% as families choose to have fewer offspring.
In 2008, the average number of children born to foreign mothers was 1.81, in 2009 the figure was 1.69. Foreign mothers still, however, account for 20.6% of births in Spain.
In 2008, the average number of children born to Spanish mothers was 1.38, in 2009 it was 1.33.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, INE, the decline is a combination of the reduced fertility in women and a decreasing number of women of childbearing age.